Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
...

Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

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By Rob Meltzer

Aug. 28, 2013
11:10 a.m.

Al Jezeera and other Middle Eastern news sources have reported over night that Israeli and Jordanian intelligence agencies have shared with the UN evidence that some of the militias fighting Assad in Syria are breakaway members of the military who fled their barracks with chemical weapon canisters and that these canisters may have been the source of the attack. Thus, this may not have been an attack by Assad, but rather a terrorist attack designed to draw in an American attack on Assad. Curiously, these intelligence agencies are working directly with the UN, as they don’t trust the security of the United States not to leak sources. In the meantime, it is also being reported this morning that Jordan is demanding that attacks on Syria not come from its soil, the Labor Party in Britain is demanding UN action, and even the UN is demanding the completion of its investigation and action by the UN rather than unilateral and likely American assault. Right now, the UN is far less certain than Obama and Kerry, and we seem to be back in yellow cake in Africa land again.

But once again, Kerry and Obama are way out ahead of the news circle, establishing unacceptable red lines and ultimatums and threats that not only lack support in the evidence but also support in the global community. The UN said that Obama is not known to be “trigger happy.” Tell that to the folk he murdered in Yemen by “mistake.” In any event, what will it take before Obama and his Secretary of State learn that lying to the world is more dangerous to American prestige and credibility than sagacious patience?